Windows 2000 Drive Mirroring on ML330

[Greg Osborn]

I have a Proliant ML330 with Windows 2000 Server installed. There are two SCSI hard drives. The first one has three partitions.

1 Diagnostic SYSTEMCFG (no drive letter)
2 NTFS WINDOWS C:
3 NTFS DATA N:

BOOT.INI contains the following line:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Server" /fastdetect

I mirrored drives C: and N: to the second drive through Disk Management in Windows. Windows will not mirror the SYSTEMCFG partition. If I remove the first drive and change the second drive's SCSI ID to what the first one's was, I can't get Windows to boot from it. I get "Searching for operating system" and it never starts. I have tried breaking the mirror and changing BOOT.INI to read
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Server" /fastdetect
but this doesn't help. I have also tried imaging the drive using Norton Ghost 2003 but it still won't boot off the second one. There is something about the way the Compaq utilities set up the drive that prevents Windows from starting correctly.

Do I have to run the Compaq setup CD on the second drive to create the diagnostic partition before I create the mirrors?

[SAKET_5]

Hi Greg,

not fully sure of your intentions there, do you not have an option for hardware mirror?any pressing reason for software mirroring?have you got an array controller in your proliant ML330?

Could you please run the BIOS level array configuration utilty, just wish to find out how your disks are all setup? Do you have an option to run ACU (array configuration utility) from the OS?

Not sure entirely yet whether this is applicable in your case, but I do remember that the default boot order on proliants are as follows:
1. Boot Controller (Smart array controller, etc)
2. Logical Drive 1 (created by setting up your arrays and disks the very first time you set it all up)
3. Logical boot partition (Windows terminology "active" partition) found on logical drive 1.

Let me know if this helps or if you need more info...interested to watch this thread.

regards,

[Greg Osborn]

>not fully sure of your intentions there, do
>you not have an option for hardware mirror?
>any pressing reason for software
>mirroring?have you got an array controller in
>your proliant ML330?

There is a Compaq 64-Bit/66MHz Dual Channel Wide Ultra3 SCSI Adapter, but no hardware RAID. Buying a new controller is probably not an option.

Both drives are on the same channel, and that channel is set as the first boot device in BIOS. The first drive is SCSI ID 0 and the second is ID 1. There is no problem booting from the first drive, but if I disconnect it and set the second drive to ID 0 it won't boot.

I have puzzled over this and the only thing I can think of is that there is something peculiar in the boot sector or the Compaq diagnostic partition that has to be there for the drive to boot.

[Greg Osborn]

It looks like nobody has any other ideas about this issue. Here is my plan.

1. Delete all partitions off the 2nd drive.

2. Down the server, disconnect the 1st drive, and switch the 2nd drive to SCSI ID 0.

3. Boot off the Compaq SmartStart CD-ROM and select Manual Configuration to set up the hard drive for a Windows 2000 Server install. If this is not available then use the Update System Partition option.

4. Once SmartStart has finished, reconnect the 1st drive as SCSI ID 0 and the 2nd one as SCSI ID 1.

5. Boot off the 1st drive. Mirror the C: and N: partitions to the 2nd drive through Disk Management in Windows.

6. Down the server, disconnect the 1st drive, and switch the 2nd drive to SCSI ID 0. See if Windows will boot off it.

7. If not, boot off the Windows 2000 Server CD-ROM and run the FIXBOOT and FIXMBR commands from the Recovery Console.

Is it plausible that this will work?

[JohnWRuffo · Accepted solution]

Greg:

Your plan is generally correct. You would need to install a system partition on the second drive via the smartstart.

The second drive (in the disaster recovery test) would need to be active...

take a look at the attached PDF.

[Greg Osborn]

Thank you. That is exactly the information I needed. I will be trying the procedure this Thursday.